Kerbin One
by Thomas988
Summary: For centuries, the Kerbal Space Program has been scanning the skies for intelligent life beyond their homeworld Kerbin. But now, they think they've found it located far off in the nearest galaxy. Bill, Bob and Jebediah Kerman are selected to go and find this civilization. But when the mission goes wrong, it quickly turns into a fight for survival.
1. Chapter 1

Stars glimmered in Jebediah Kerman's eyes as he stared out of the spacecraft's cupola capsule windows. Above him was the massive green gas planet of Jool, and below him, it's icy third moon, Vall.

Most would've found the scene amazing, beautiful even. But to Jebediah, it was terrifying.

But it was not the appearance of the universe around him that frightened him, it was his current state.

In minutes, his spacecraft would collide with the large moon at tremendous speeds, far greater than what anyone could survive. And to make the case even worse, he wasn't alone.

"Jebediah, we're 200,000 kilometers above Vall, and the surface is coming up at us over 600 meters a second!"

Along with Jebediah was a large fleet of 48 more small spacecraft, and screaming in Jebediah's headset was one of the pilots. They too, had only minutes until impact.

"Stay calm!" Jebediah boomed. "I'm transitioning all spacecraft pods over to manual override. In a few moments, I will have full control of the fleet." And with that, the screens in Jebediah's capsule transformed into an explosion of numbers, maps and trajectories. He now had full control.

While examining their altitude above Vall, their velocities, their positions and their fuel quantities, Jebediah had an idea. Taking a deep breath, Jebediah stated his next order.

"All odd-numbered Kerbonauts 1 through 47 relocate into even-numbered vessels immediately!"

"But sir!" one of the pilots urgently asked, "We have hardly enough RCS fuel in our EVA packs to do that!"

Jebediah had thought of this. "Now here's an idea: open both airlock doors at the same time. The vacuum should give you enough of a kick to get to another vessel!"

"But sir!"

"Now!"

They followed his orders immediately. As Jebediah had said, they all opened both of their airlock doors. The air rushing out of their vessels propelled them into the void of space. But now a new problem arose, how were they to be sure that they would hit another spacecraft?

But to all 24 Kerbals' surprises their EVA packs suddenly burst to life. They had no idea what was happening.

But as if Jebediah could read their thoughts, he told them, "Everyone stay calm. I'm am temporarily taking full control of your EVA suits. Just go along with my maneuvers, and you'll all be perfectly fine!"

So they did. As the Kerbonauts flew through space, Jebediah frantically controlled their spacesuits' small thrusters, RCS thrusters as they were called. "_One maneuver at a time, one maneuver at a time…"_ Jebediah thought to himself as one by one he brought the Kerbonauts to safety.

Finally it was over.

All 24 of the Kerbonauts were safely perched on another space vessel, and soon they all clambored into each one of the crew compartments. Now half the fleet's crew was crammed into just 24 spacecraft. By normal standards, this was dangerous. But to Jebediah, this was fantastic. Now he had only to deal with 24 spacecraft instead of 48. He knew that one more maneuver and they would live. Jebediah checked their trajectory. The fleet was now just below 100,000 meters above Vall's surface. They were running out of time, only a minute or so left.

"Is everyone safely seated?" Jebdiah asked the fleet urgently.

"Yes sir!" each one of them replied.

"Alright!" Jebediah started, "All ships set thrust vector to 0 degrees latitude. On my mark, activate your rocket engines at full throttle!" Without another word being said, the fleet turned their vessels facing parallel to the moon below them.

"T minus fifteen seconds!" The crew was on full alert, all waiting for the precise second they were to burn horizontal to the ground.

"T minus ten seconds!"

"T minus five seconds!"

"3, 2, **1**!" Instantaneously, all the spacecraft ignited their engines. The capsule shook almost violently.

"We have ignition!" Though Jebediah knew this was a dangerous burn, as they would have to be at least moving hundreds of meters a second _horizontally_, he decided to take the risk. It was now only a matter if they would have enough fuel or not.

Seconds dragged on into minutes. Jebediah, hoping as hard as could this would work, stared unblinkingly at their resources. _"100 units of fuel left"_ The number quickly dropped to 90, then 85, then 80. Meanwhile, their trajectories moved closer and closer to the edge of the moon. If their periapsis, the lowest altitude they would get above the moon, rose above the surface, then they would make it out alive. But if they ran out of fuel before they could get their periapsis above the surface at all, they would collide with the surface at hundreds of meters a second.

"Jebediah!"

"We're not going to make it!"

"We need to stop this now!" The pilots screamed in horror that they would run out of fuel, but Jebediah cut them off from his mind. _"45, 40, 30…"_

Their periapsis was only hundreds of meters below the surface, but it rose.

"Jebediah, we have fifteen units left! Kill the burn now!"

"No! Periapsis is at a negative fifty meters!"

But as Jebediah screamed at the pilot, the panic stopped. All he could hear was dead silence just as quiet as space. Confused, Jebediah looked at the dashboard. It read "Periapsis: positive 150 meters."

The fleet began cheering. It seemed to be as loud as a sonic boom, but Jebediah kept his headset on. They had only a few units of fuel left. But finally, with their lowest altitude of 784 meters above the surface of Vall, their fuel burnt out. Now, a rescue vessel could save them. There was hope for all of them.

But as they now safely flew through space, the sound of the cheers changed, almost faded in a way. The voices were no longer of the fleet, but of those he knew very well: Mission Control.

"Congratulations Jebediah," Gene Kerman, the head of the Kerbal Space Program, cheered, "You've passed the simulation with flying colors!"

The stars around Jebediah's spacecraft then faded into a singular white glow. Jool, along with its moon Vall, died out into the whiteness. Behind him, a door opened.

Jebediah stepped out, and through the door was the staff of the KSP Mission Control team, all cheering and congratulating him.


	2. Chapter 2

He had been casually walking down the main corridor of the Astronaut Complex when sudden cheers filled the air. Curious, Bill searched for the source. He noticed ahead of him a large crowd of Mission Control employees. They huddled near the entrance of a hall, a hall that lead to the simulation rooms.

"Hm." Bill Kerman murmured to himself. "Let's see what this is about." He approached the crowd. "Excuse me!" he exclaimed.

Some of the employees turned around surprised to see him.

"Oh Bill! Come right through, you're definitely in for a surprise." One of them said, smiling brightly.

"Thank you." Bill replied. He wedged himself through the people. "Coming through! Oh! Excuse me!" Looking ahead of him, he started to see what the commotion what about, but finally he broke through. Now knowing who was there, Bill smiled.

"Jeb!" Bill cried.

"Hey, Bill!" Jebediah said back, now beaming with a smile too.

"What's this all about?"

"I'll tell you later, let's just get out of here first."

Bill chuckled. "Sure thing." With that, the two of them stepped through the crowd. The excitement had died down a bit, as the employees no longer cheered. Instead, as Bill noticed, they gave Jeb pats on the back, handshakes and compliments. It struck him oddly, as still he had no idea what had happened.

"Nice work out there, Jebediah!" "Congratulations!" "Flawless performance!" Bill could overhear the workers cry. _"What happened?"_ Bill couldn't stop thinking to himself. But they passed through the crowd. The two of them were now just walking along together down the main hallway of the complex.

"So," Bill asked once more, "What happened out there?"

"Well," Jebediah started, "You know those tests they've been making us take lately?"

"Of course." Bill remarked back. "What about it?"

"Today I took the simulation test." Jebediah didn't say anything more.

For only a moment more Bill stared at him in confusion. That's when suddenly he realized it. The simulation hallway, the cheers, the compliments. Yes, it all made sense now.

"No way, Jebediah. You passed the simulation, didn't you?"

Jeb smiled widely back at Bill. "Yes," he replied, "I did."

Speechless, Bill took his friend's hand and shook it wildly for a few seconds. He asked, "What was it like, Jeb?"

"Well, let's see." Jebediah said, attempting to recall everything that happened, "You see now, they put me in control of a fleet comprised of 48 small transport ships. We were above the moon Vall, and me along with the fleet were going to collide with it."

Bill nodded, and motioned for him to continue his story. "Go on! How you save them?"

Jebediah continued, "It was quite simple, actually. I gave myself control of fleet, giving me full access to our current speed, direction, and etcetera. What happened next was that I had half the fleet's Kerbonaut crew transfer into another spacecraft, making the amount of operable ships 24 instead of 48. After that, we performed a simple anti-normal burn. Periapsis got above ground level, and that was that."

"Wow," Bill replied, "Sounds incredible."

"It really was quite the experience." Jebediah chuckled and smiled, "Say, what was your simulation test like?"

Bill jokingly rolled his eyes. It seemed to him he'd told this story a thousand times. "I've told you before, Jeb. I was in control of an anti-matter collection spacecraft, and it was going to burn up in Eve's atmosphere. Noticed its moon Gilly nearby, and I used it's gravity to slingshot us away from the planet. Remember?"

"Ah yes! Got it! How many Kerbals have passed the test so far?"

"I've heard it just us two so far." Bill replied in pride.

"Quite the coincidence, I'll say!" Jebediah joked. The two of them laughed.

After a small silence, Bill asked, "What do you want to do now?"

Jeb thought for a moment. "Well, Gene told me I'm on standby. And I checked the schedule, there won't be any rocket launches until everyone's been tested. So, I guess I'd like to go home."

He hadn't seen his family in at least 3 months. He missed them dearly. He also knew there wouldn't any better of a time than now to see them.

Bill bit his lip and thought about what Jebediah had said. "I guess I can't say no to that." He nodded.

"Thanks Bill for understanding. It has been great seeing you again!" Jebediah smiled and waved as he walked away. When he had reached the end of the corridor he couldn't see Bill anymore. But now ahead of him lied a pair of thick, heavy doors. Showing his ID to the scanner, the doors clicked open into the central lobby. He approached the desk. A woman there greeted him.

"Mr. Jebediah, how may I help you this late afternoon?" she kindly asked.

"I'll be signing out, thank you." Jeb replied back.

"Alright then." She reached for a sheet of paper and a pen. She handed the items to Jebediah. "Just sign right here and you can be on your way."

Jebediah did just that. With the paper signed with his usual signature, he turned it back in. "Thank you."

There was now nothing left for him to do. He turned and opened the entrance doors. A balcony stood overhead as Jebediah Kerman walked out into the fresh air, with the red-orange color of sunset shining on his face.

Starting his car, he headed back towards his home, Kerbin City.


End file.
